Injured driver in Cabrillo crash dies

Authorities released the name today of a 91-year-old motorist who died 10 days after apparently hitting the gas pedal instead of the brake while trying to park a truck, which jumped a curb at Cabrillo National Monument and plunged about 250 feet down a sheer brushy hillside.

Harold Reed of San Diego succumbed to his injuries early Thursday evening at UCSD Medical Center in Hillcrest, according to the county Medical Examiner's Office.

Reed apparently hit the gas pedal instead of the brake while trying to park during a visit to the Point Loma historic tourist attraction the morning of Oct. 12, according to the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department.

The Chevrolet S-10 went over a sidewalk in the lot off Cabrillo Memorial Drive and careened about 225 feet down the adjacent precipice, then went over a steep drop-off, overturned and slid about 25 more feet before coming to rest.

By the time emergency personnel got to the upside-down truck, the passenger, 77-year-old John Little of San Diego, had managed to extricate himself, but firefighters had to free Reed from the damaged vehicle. They then put the older man on a litter and airlifted him to the hospital for treatment of a broken neck and other injuries.

Crews, meanwhile, strapped Little into a stretcher and pulled him up the hillside. A ground ambulance then took him to the same trauma center where his companion had gone.